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JOHN LANGDON 



BY 



CHARLES k. CORNING 



Dei/Ivbreid before the New Hampshire Society oe 

Sons of the American Revoi,ution 

April, 19, 1898 



CONCORD 

RUMFORD PRINTING COMPANY 

1903 



.1 



H^tA.0 



JOHN LANGDON 



THE 

LIFE AND TIMES OF JOFIN LANGDON. 



The 19th of April is a date of singular significance in the calendar 
of American history. It is also a day of peculiar endearment to every 
patriot heart. Lexington and Concord, the announcement of peace 
with Great Britain, the passage of the Massachusetts Sixth through 
the scowling and hissing mobs of secession in Baltimore city. Oh, 
rich, natal day of Independence and Union ! How we of this genera- 
tion, almost touching the dial hands of another century, should remem- 
ber and honor this auspicious day. Let us resolve that the bright fire 
of this society be annually kindled, that its members, the descendants 
of those who struck the first blow for national supremacy may com- 
mingle with those who, eighty-six years later, struck the last blow that 
made this nation one and indivisible. Here let us renew our oaths of 
perpetual allegiance to the welfare of our country ; here let us try oiu"- 
selves by the lofty standard of the fathers, and be inspired by their 
revered memory. 

Wednesday, the 19th of April, 1775, was no surprise to the Sons 
of Liberty. The storm had long been growing dark and the air was 
full of electricity ; only the final spark needed to be touched. For 
ten years the possibility of war had been felt by the leaders. For two 
years, at least, its probability had been realized by the people. For a 
month its certainty was recognized by friend and foe. General Gage 
was a tried soldier who knew the temper and the fibre of the Ameri- 
cans, for he had fought side by side with Washington at Braddock's 
defeat twenty years before ; he saw the situation and read aright the 
signs of the times. Sam Adams, more radical than the Revolution 
itself, and John Hancock, the man of station and wealth, spoke the 
loudest. The orders were given, and the red coats, embarking at the 
foot of Boston common, were silently rowed across the Charles to the 
Cambridge ^hore, whence they began their early morning march. 
And so, in characters of blood, was written the birth of American 
independence. But you know the whole thrilling story of the minute 



6 JOHN LANGDON. 

men and the battle at the bridge, and of the harassed retreat of the 
king's vanquished army back to the patriot capital. 

April 19 was but the culmination of the dissent and resistance that 
the clear thinkers of England had long foreseen. Less than a month 
earlier Burke had made his great speech on conciliation, and with 
prophetic words pictured the attitude of the Americans. 

"Another circumstance in our colonies," said he, "which con- 
tributes no mean part towards the growth and effect of this intractable 
spirit is their education. In no country, perhaps, in the world 
is the law so general a study. The profession itself is numerous and 
powerful, and in most provinces it takes the lead. The greater num- 
ber of the deputies sent to the congress were lawyers. But all who 
read, and most do read, endeavor to obtain some smattering in that 
science. I have been told by an eminent bookseller, that in no 
branch of his business, after tracts of popular devotion, were so many 
books as those on the law exported to the plantations. I hear that 
they have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's Commentaries in 
America as in England. General Gage marks out this disposition 
very particularly in a letter on your table. He states that all the 
people in his government are lawyers or smattered in law, — and that 
in Boston they have been enabled, by successful chicane, wholly to 
evade many parts of one of your capital penal constitutions. This 
study renders men acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, 
ready in debate, full of resources. In other countries, the people, 
more simple and of a less mercurial cast, judge of an ill principle in 
government only by an actual grievance ; here they anticipate the evil, 
and judge of the pressure of the grievance by the badness of the 
principle. They augur misgovernment at a distance and snuff the 
approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze." 

The eloquent lips of the Irish orator uttered the cardinal note of 
the Whig party of England, the party of constitutional prerogative. 
So spoke imperious Chatham and Barr^, and later, Richmond and 
Rockingham. It was the golden prelude to another chapter in Anglo- 
Saxon freedom. The Revolution was but an emphatic development 
in the evolution of man's individuality. It was bound to come ; 
peaceably if possible, violently if it must ; for the seed whence it 
sprang had been sown at Runnymede. 

It was a long and disheartening succession of centuries from 
Runnymede to the surrender at Appomattox, and more than once 
the light of liberty was recognized solely by its fitful shadows. But, 
in God's providence, the precious spark was preserved. It survived 



JOHN IvANGDON. 7 

the tortures of monarchs and the decay of ages, until it gleamed in the 
glad wilderness of the new world. Jamestown and Plymouth and 
Massachusetts Bay are the white marks showing the way from Runny- 
mede and Naseby to Bunker Hill and Gettysburg, They are the 
splendid sunbursts over a larger and holier freedom. 

The prerevolutionary annals of the thirteen colonies were but the 
advancing steps in the development of the greater history of govern- 
ments and its relations to the people. Taxation without representa- 
tion was an incident, not cumulative but suggestive. The tea tax, 
the disciplinary Boston Port bill, were, as we look upon them now, 
the benignant signs of a new- evolution of civic progress. Sam 
Adams interpreted them with a clearer vision than any of his asso- 
ciates. Each ministerial aggression was to him a corner-stone of the 
new edifice. He saw nothing to regret in the commotion of the hour, 
for to him revolution was purely the result of two stupendous factors, 
namely, dissatisfaction with existing ideas, and dissatisfaction with 
■existing practices. Selfishness was the ruling passion in the British 
cabinet. George the Third, remembering the words of his mother, 
determined to be king. The Board of Trade made the American 
Revolution possible. No one set of men, no particular ministry, no 
specific act or resolve, not Townsend nor North, occasioned the war. 
It was the baleful spirit of commerce that insisted on governing 
a people by the rules and customs decreed by parliamentary ignorance. 
And, therefore, in spite of bribes and official fawning, England found 
the colonies as one. Do what she would, the colonies were as resolute 
in 1 768 as they were in 1 77 5 . " We should stand upon the broad com- 
mon ground of those natural rights that we all feel and know as men 
and descendants of Englishmen. I wish the charters may not ensnare 
us at last, by drawing different colonies to act differently in this great 
■cause. Whenever that is the case, all will be over with the whole. 
There ought to be no New England man, no New Yorker, known on 
the continent ; but all of us Americans." Thus spoke the patriotic 
Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina. 

The British ministry would not believe that acts directed against 
Massachusetts would be resented in Virginia. Common cause was a 
truth rejected utterly in the councils of the king. When the charter 
of Massachusetts had been annulled and the Boston Port bill enacted 
in retaliation for the tea party, Washington exclaimed, " I will raise 
one thousand men, subsist them at my own expense, and march 
myself at their head for the relief of Boston." When compensation 
for the drenched tea was bruited Gadsden cried out, " Don't pay for 



8 JOHN I^ANGDON. 

an ounce of the damned tea." But still the ministry, stolid in its 
conceit, kept on playing with the sacred fire. As the time for action 
drew near, the altars of Liberty, dotting the coast from the St. Croix to 
the Savannah, burst into steadier flame and arched the western horizon 
with a glow never before seen by man. Georgia and New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts and Virginia were acting as one. The rice planter of 
the South and the farmer on the New England hills made a common 
cause, and the grand march toward independence had begun. The 
committees of correspondence were enriching the literature of human 
liberty, while the great heart of the colonies beat responsive to the 
duties of the hour. Royal authority was waning, and the government 
of the people waxed stronger as the crisis drew near. Dear old New 
Hampshire and her patriot sons, empty of purse but resolute of soul, 
hesitated never a moment at the grave parting of the ways. From her 
only seaport she too had sent away the tea ships, and her people 
cried Amen. 

And with what orderly steps the men of the Revolution approached 
the crisis ! Violence was foreign to their natures, passion played a 
minor part, while hatred of the mother country was far from their 
hearts. And yet the whole land was in arms, but laws were not 
silent. Then grievances were real, and forms of dissent were ex- 
pressed in phrase so simple that every man, be he high or low, 
lettered or ignorant, comprehended the questions of the time and 
understood the remedy. As yet no sectional jealousies cast their 
dark shadows ; liberty in all its purity was the ideal, and the dedica- 
tion of its temple was the one solemn purpose in all the thirteen 
colonies. The men of America had given deep thought to this 
question. The head and the heart had gone over every argument 
again and again ^i^g^^iM^^as left to chance. The people had been 
educated to meet t^e mS^HS^ttch a time, and their leS.ders took 
care to preserve p^tvsonal liberty and property so as not to bring^ 
reproach on the sacredness of their cause. 

In New Hampshire resistance to unjust laws was an early plant, 
and the men of 1774 were repeating in the same theater the scenes 
of 1684. The names of the actors were changed but the play 
was strikingly similar. When Edward Randolph came to Ports- 
mouth in 1680, bearing the royal commission as collector of the 
king's revenue, and began laying unlawful taxes on the commerce 
of the town, old President Cutts stood across his path and bade 
him stop. Then came Cranfield, the new governor, bent on usurpa- 
tion, who kept adjourning the little assembly, hoping at last to con- 



JOHN LANGDON. 9 

vene one subservient to his wishes ; but he misjudged the New 
Hampshire colonists, and in his vexation wrote to the royal sec- 
retary of state that "the people are of such mutinous disposition 
that it is not safe to let them convene." Then he took to governing 
autocratically by imposing taxes in defiance of provincial law, and 
in a moment the scattered farmers were one in the common defense. 
Some of his sheriffs retreated before the clubs of the outraged cit- 
izens, while others, attempting to enter the houses to serve their 
master's writs, were routed by the women pouring scalding water 
■on their heads. The military was called out but not a soldier 
appeared, and the first fight for personal liberty was fought and 
won on New Hampshire soil. With the mothers' songs of those 
days ringing in their ears, what could be expected from the men and 
women of New Hampshire one hundred years later? As Randolph 
and Cranfield found their Cutts and their Moody, so Wentworth 
found his Weare and his Langdon. With regular and orderly steps 
our ancestors marched to the music of the Revolution, and when 
the day for action arrived swift messengers spurring over the land 
found preparation everywhere, so thorough had been the work of the 
different committees of correspondence. 

It seemed as if the whole air was surcharged with the one common 
thought of the epoch. The expressions of {he Virginia house of 
burgesses found instant response in the New Hampshire assembly. 
In May, 1773, our assembly voted to instruct its committee to reply 
to the letter of the Virginia house of burgesses, and a little later 
appointed a committee of correspondence consisting of seven mem- 
bers. At the same time, Mr. Speaker Wentworth, not Governor 
John, in addressing the Virginia house, wrote in nervous phrase, 
saying that in every constitutional plan for securing the rights of 
British America and removing thevi'present infringements thereon, 
"our sister colonies may rely that we sincerely join, having no work 
for ourselves of an exclusive nature in those matters, ever looking 
on the whole as embarked in the same common bottom." 

Events moved fast and the separation grew wider, so in February, 
1774, we find the speaker of our New Hampshire assembly now 
addressing the Massachusetts house. " By the best intelligence we 
can obtain, it appears that the British ministry are resolved in a 
great degree, if not fully, to enslave the inhabitants of the colonies 
in America subject to the crown of Great Britain, if by any means 
they can effect it, which much concerns the Americans to withstand 
and prevent. The proposed method of union in all the colonies 



lO JOHN I^ANGDON. 

hath ever appeared to us since the first recommendation thereof, 
to be absolutely necessary. . . . You may, therefore, depend 
on the ready concurrence of this House with the measures tho't 
necessary to be pursued by the other colonies in the cause of 
Liberty. ... Be assured also of our assistance (small as it may 
be) by contributing all in our power to promote a general union thro'' 
the colonies, which we hope will be so strongly cemented as not ta 
be easily dissolved." 

We can almost see and hear the growth of the plant liberty, and 
why not, when its roots were nourished with sentiments so rich and 
patriotic? It was at this session of the assembly that we come to- 
understand the exact temper of the time by means of a scene enacted 
within the walls of the representatives' room. The assembly had 
appointed a committee of correspondence in flat opposition to the 
will of the royal governor, who, distressed at their action, promptly 
adjourned the body ; but finding this measure wholly useless, he dis- 
solved the recalcitrant body thinking the members would disperse. 
But not so. A committee called the members to meet in the royal 
assembly chamber, and while they were deliberating, in walked 
Governor Wentworth and his council, attended by John Parker, 
sheriff of Rockingham. The members all rose at the vice-regal pres- 
ence, and with decorous calmness listened to a proclamation direct- 
ing them to disperse and to keep the king's peace. The governor and 
his party then retired, while the members resumed their seats and 
discussed the situation. 

The crisis had indeed arrived and instant action was imperative. 
Hesitation or weakness would be fatal. The representatives of the 
people had received the king's commands to be gone or suffer the 
penalties of high treason. To each patriot heart came the momentous 
question. Shall it be forward or shall it be tide waiting until the other 
colonies be heard from? There was no passion, no outburst of defi- 
ance. With splendid courage they made straight for revolution. 

They departed from the king's government house forever, and, 
quickly reassembling under the friendly roof of a patriot citizen of 
Portsmouth, voted forthwith to request all the towns in the province 
to send deputies to a convention to be held at Exeter, which should 
elect delegates to a general congress of the colonies. They also voted 
to raise so much money, and, in fitting conclusion, they recommended 
a day for fasting and prayer. The Revolution had surely begun. 
The summer of 1774 passed into autumn and autumn was lost in 
winter, and there was no change in public affairs. Wavering opinion 



JOHN LANGDON, II 

and scattered sentiment had gradually been drawn to a common 
center and become hardened. To the people the question was clear. 
Either their delegates at Exeter were wrong and the governor at 
Portsmouth right, or the reverse was true. Long before winter set 
in Governor Wentworth became convinced that the union of the col- 
onies would not be lost in New Hampshire, and he so wrote to the 
ministers. Kindly by nature, in love with his birthplace and friendly 
to her citizens, the governor found his position perplexing, but he so 
managed to do his duty as not to offend the patriots. In the presence 
of the new authority, the government of the people, he never quailed, 
nor did he asperse that authority in angry remonstrance. He tried 
to remain the king's servant and the people's friend, but mere popu- 
larity did not pass current among the resolute, God-fearing men of one 
hundred and twenty-three years ago, and Wentworth, one of the 
sweetest characters in the Revolutionary epoch, was soon driven from 
his native land though loving New Hampshire to the very last. 

Exciting events came in quick succession. In September the ship 
Fox sailed into Portsmouth harbor laden with tea, and the people 
assembled and declared that the cargo should not be landed. Win- 
dows were broken and the magistrates were summoned, but the tea 
was vanquished, and the Fox spread her canvas for Halifax. In 
November General Gage wanted barracks for his soldiers, but the 
carpenters of Boston refused to measure a plank or drive a nail, 
whereupon Gage requested his friend, the governor of New Hamp- 
shire, to send to him the much-needed workmen. The agent through 
whom this business was done was summoned before the commit- 
tee of correspondence in Rochester, and on his bended knee solemnly 
acknowledged his error, and as solemnly promised never again to 
assist the king's cause. Another month brings the people in open 
conflict with the king, and in the eye of the common law marks them 
as traitors doomed for the scaffold. 

It is now the 13th of December, 1774, and the short winter day in 
Portsmouth nears the hours of darkness, when over the Boston high- 
way gallops a strange horseman. Few see him and no one recognizes 
him. But it is the Mercury of the Revolution, Paul Revere. Dashing 
through the silent streets he draws rein before the house of Samuel 
Cutts, and disappears within its hospitable doors. He brings dis- 
patches telling of the royal proclamation prohibiting the exportation 
of powder. This is important, and Mr. Cutts instantly summons the 
committee of correspondence to meet at his house. One by one 
they arrive and the news is discussed. Among Revere's despatches 



12 JOHN I^ANGDON. 

is one announcing the intention of Gage to send a frigate to Portsmouth 
to guard the harbor and its forts. This means coercion. The com- 
mittee-men take instant resolution and disappear in the darkness. The 
morning brings an unwonted commotion. Little groups are chatting 
at the street corners. The stores are now audience halls. Women 
talk across the garden fences. Even children on their way to school 
pause and look interested. "What means this activity?" asks the gov- 
ernor, as he peers from his parlor" windows, and he wonders what 
brings John Sullivan to town, and why he and John Langdon shake 
hands and smile and direct their steps toward the Portsmouth 
parade. Before another day ends its course the governor's curiosity 
had given away to vice-royal indignation, for never before had so 
gross an outrage been visited upon the king. In broad daylight a mob 
of rebels had actually marched down to a king's fort and captured its 
garrison and taken away its munitions of war. Captain Cochran 
and his guard had been made to surrender at the muzzles of hostile 
muskets, the fort had been looted, and one hundred barrels of powder 
carried away by the rebels. Yes, New Hampshire had committed 
the first overt act in the Revolution, and Castle William and Mary 
was the Fort Sumter of another embattled age. John Sullivan and 
John Langdon, with a band of resolute patriots, on that crisp 
December day, did more than seize a stronghold of the king ; they 
blazed the way to independence and constitutional liberty. Oh, what 
a deed was that ! And yet we almost forget it in the greater events 
that followed. It was not the crazy deed of a mob, not the wild delir- 
ium of the hour, but the solemn blow of warning announcing to kings 
thenceforth that the rights of a people are dearer and holier than the 
prerogative of a monarch. 

And on that winter day we recognize the meaning of the maxim that 
men do not make the times, but that, times make the men; for John 
Langdon, in the full flush of manhood, stood on the threshold of the 
new edifice, and dedicated himself to liberty and his country's cause. 
The Langdon family, though of sterling worth and long resident in 
Portsmouth, was not counted among the aristocracy which assembled 
at the vice-regal court and partook of governmental favors. The 
Langdon men were tillers of the soil and toilers of the sea, and had 
been known for generations as men of capacity and resource. The 
family name appeared on the public records of the province and of the 
town, and one of the name went as chaplain when Pepperell led his 
host to Louisbourg in 1745 ; and we see him again as president of 
Harvard, offering up his fervent prayers the night before the battle 



JOHN IvANGDON. 13 

of Bunker Hill. John Langdon, the most illustrious to bear the 
name, was born in Portsmouth June 26, 1741, and was one of 
six children, the younger of the two sons, and was of the sixth 
generation of pure English yeoman stock born in America. Like 
many of the youth of that day, he was sent to the celebrated school 
kept by Major Samuel Hale, where he acquired a satisfactory amount 
of book learning sufficient for his needs. He was not a student, yet 
he learned readily and kept what he had learned. He was given to 
play, but his observation was keen and his memory unusually tena- 
cious. From the school-room he passed into the business house of 
Daniel Rindge, a prominent merchant of the period, and later went to 
sea as supercargo. He followed seafaring life with apparent pleasure, 
for it carried him to strange ports and introduced him to men and 
customs, and unconsciously equipped him for that success in public 
station which he subsequently attained. Alert, vigorous, and ambi- 
tious, the momentous issues beginning with the Stamp Act made a 
deep impression on his nature, and he followed the movements of the 
time with ever increasing interest and concern. Born a provincial, 
with the blood of six generations of free American citizenship coursing 
in his veins, the cause of his country was his own, and he made ready 
to advocate it and to fight for it even from the beginning. Search as 
one may, one will not find in all the roll of Revolutionary times a 
man more typical of the common cause than John Langdon. Such 
men were the God-sent balances to sustain and to regulate the new 
nation in the hours of darkness and danger. They represented the 
faith that found expression in the constitution. It was they, above all 
others, who breathed the breath of life into the infant people, and it is 
their spirit that has sustained and will sustain our nation in its mo- 
ments of direst need. Resolute, self-poised, and just, prepared for 
personal sacrifice and poverty, they hewed to the line of right, let the 
chips fly where they would. Versed in the theories of state craft and 
practised in the science of popular government, men of the Langdon 
class saw clearly the results to be achieved, and, like the master 
builders that they were, they took the precaution not to destroy the 
foundations of the fabric which they had determined to remodel, for 
they knew it had to be inhabited during the reconstruction and ever 
after. The king's government had been withstood, invasion was im- 
minent, yet that was the time chosen by the people to show reverence 
for the law and to command obedience to its ministers. 

One of the first acts of the Exeter convention was an address to the 
people, and among its recommendations was this: "That you dis- 



14 JOHN LANGDON. 

countenance and discourage all trespasses and injuries against indi- 
viduals and their property, and all disorders of every kind ; and 
that you cultivate peace and harmony among yourselves ; that you 
yield due obedience to the magistrates within the government and 
carefully endeavor to support the laws thereof." It was the love of 
order and respect for law as personified by John Langdon that gave to 
the Revolution a moral force that kept expanding until it touched 
every throne in Europe. The leaders of our Revolution were sober 
men, of elegant habits, not carried away by the high-flown tendencies 
of their French imitators, nor inflated with false conceptions of power 
and liberty. They saw the mark at which they aimed, and they strove 
mightily to hit the bulPs-eye. Now came the year 1775 with its 
wealth of storied annals. In New Hampshire we find the people fully 
alive to the changing conditions, and yet no violence had been done 
nor any indignity offered to the royal governor. Langdon was full of 
energy and fast becoming a leader in the popular party. In Marchj 
1775, he was chosen a member of the assembly, and took a prominent 
part in the proceedings of what proved to be the last royal assembly 
ever held in New Hampshire. Among the members gathered in the old 
assembly house Langdon found some of the most eminent men in the 
province, and yet it must be borne in mind that only twelve miles 
away, at Exeter, was another assembly calling itself the second pro- 
vincial congress containing one hundred and forty-five delegates 
drawn from nearly every town in New Hampshire, and comprising the 
leading men of every community. In the Portsmouth assembly we 
find John Wentworth of Somersworth the speaker, Jacob Sheafe and 
Woodbury Langdon of Portsmouth, Meshech Weare, Nathaniel Fol- 
som, Josiah Bartlett, Clement March, Ebenezer Thompson, and 
lastly John Fenton, that stout and unyielding Royalist, over whose 
membership the assembly finally split, only to range itself on the side 
of the people as against the king. 

But a full month before this last royal legislature met, the glorious 
morning that Sam Adams welcomed had immortalized Lexington and 
the old North bridge at Concord, and had set the Sons of Liberty 
toward war. In the arching skies of that 19th day of April, one hun- 
dred and twenty-three years ago, patriot eyes instinctively saw the re- 
flection of patriot blood, and in imagination heard that famous shot of 
the Concord farmers. The news of what had taken place flashed over 
the land as if sent by Divine agency, and long before Massachusetts 
called in official voice for aid New Hampshire was prepared and already 
marching toward Boston. At every ferry over the Merrimack were 



JOHN I^ANGDON. 1 5 

crowds of armed men, and every meeting-house green was a rallying 
place. The men of Nottingham and Epsom, led by Cilley and Dear- 
born, were on the way in less than twenty hours from Pitcairn's com- 
mand to disperse, and they stacked arms on Cambridge common ere 
sunrise on the twenty-first. 

John Stark, aglow with patriotic fire, quit his vocation of peace, 
and, mounting his horse, galloped in the direction of the smoke, crying 
as he sped on his way for volunteers to follow. Wild and turbulent, 
the very impersonation of the storm, born to command, impatient 
of restraint, bursting with energy, Stark reached the scene of war 
with full three hundred men, and on the 23d, one day later, he 
had the satisfaction to muster under his banner more than two thou- 
sand sons of New Hampshire. And in sight and sound of scenes like 
these Governor Wentworth, on the 4th of May, convened the last 
assembly. Hoping to the end that war might be averted, trying com- 
promise and conciliation all to no purpose, the governor adjourned the 
house to June and anxiously awaited the outcome. In the meanwhile 
the Exeter congress advised the Portsmouth assembly as to its con- 
duct and duties. Fenton was forcibly expelled, and then seized and 
sent to Exeter under guard. The governor made prompt remon- 
strance. The recalcitrant assembly was firm, and in punishment for 
its defiance was again and again adjourned. 

Popular and tactful — in truth, a lovable man — Governor Went- 
worth stood almost alone and beheld the mighty wave of revolution 
roll over his native land. He had done all he could do, and, content- 
ing himself with another proclamation, withdrew from the capital and 
found refuge on His Majesty's frigate Scarborough, then swinging in 
the harbor off the dishonored walls of Castle William and Mary. 
Thus, without violence or bloodshed, was the Revolution accomplished 
in New Hampshire, and the sceptre of sovereignty passed from the 
hands of the king into the hands of the people. 

Langdon now changed from the local to the continental service, for 
the Exeter convention, early in 1775, had chosen him and John Sulli- 
van as delegates to the second continental congress, about to sit in 
Philadelphia. The journey from New Hampshire to Philadelphia was 
in those days a formidable undertaking, and in point of time was 
longer and more difficult than a voyage to Japan would be in our day. 
But the delegates pressed on, welcomed by strangers at every stage, and 
refreshed on all sides by the spontaneous enthusiasm of the people. In 
that second congress was gathered a remarkable set of men, whose 
«qual was never before assembled in any parliament house. P'irst 



l6 JOHN LANGDON. 

of all was Washington, then Franklin, the two Adamses, Jay and 
Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Rutledge, Chase, Roger Sherman, Silas- 
Deane, James Wilson, and others who subsequently served the 
republic, while presiding in grave and stately dignity sat John Han- 
cock. 

No sooner were the sessions begun than the differences of opinion 
became marked. Jealousies had not as yet poisoned the congress 
but suspicions were deep and prevalent. Up to this period the idea 
of separation from Great Britain had but slight lodgment in the popu- 
lar mind, and the delegates gradually ranged themselves into radicals 
and reconcilers. Assuming that Langdon followed the current feeling 
of New Hampshire, we may conclude that, so far as he took sides at 
all, he inclined himself rather to the followers of Dickinson than to 
those of Samuel Adams. But events of a martial kind soon changed 
the deliberations and shut the gate to reconciliation. 

Bunker Hill had been fought, yet congress was ignorant of it, but 
by some miraculous divination congress foresaw the inevitable, and 
had created Washington commander-in-chief almost on that very lytb 
of June. On May 23, 1775, the Exeter convention, in addressing 
the continental congress used these significant words : 

" Although we ardently wish that, if possible, a connection may yet 
be preserved between Great Britain and tliese colonies, founded on 
the invincible principles of justice and the general principles of the 
British constitution, yet we are entirely disposed to respect, and will- 
ing to submit to any plan of further uniting the colonies, for the pur- 
pose of common security and defense." 

On May 31st our convention voted to raise two thousand men, but 
so slow was mail communication that Langdon and Sullivan knew 
nothing of the change in public opinion, and, fearing that a spirit of 
compromise might find favor among the men of Exeter, they despatched 
a letter from Philadelphia, dated the 22d of May, containing some 
strong advice. Among other items is this : 

" We are sorry. Gentlemen, that Honor will not permit us to give 
you the least information respecting our proceedings ; we can only 
say that all the colonies are firmly united and are preparing for the 
worst. We hope that you will in Imitation of the other colonies- 
proceed to ■ choose your officers and establish your militia upon 
the new plan which has been adopted by every colony upon the 
continent. 

"P. S. We earnestly entreat you to prevent our general court from 
making an application to Great Britain for Redress of Grievajices, as 



JOHN LANGDON. IJ 

that would draw the resentment of all America upon our Province, it 
being agreed that no one shall make terms without the advice and 
consent of the whole." 

But no sooner had news of Bunker Hill reached Philadelphia 
than Sullivan started for New Hampshire, being unable to spend 
his precious time in debate when war was raging almost in sight 
of his own home; so Langdon was left in full charge of New Hamp- 
shire affairs. 

Summer was yielding to autumn ; the colonies were in arms ; a great 
battle had been fought ; Washington had been chosen commander-in- 
chief of the continental army, and that army, near thirty thousand in 
number, lay encamped around beleaguered Boston. Every incoming 
ship bore intelligence of invading armies and of fleets fit to stifle the 
foreign communications of the struggling people. Money was becom- 
ing dangerously scarce, and the levying of taxes, the very life blood of 
self-respecting society, brought novel and perplexing questions to the 
surface. New Hampshire was now free from every touch of royalty. 
The governor had fled to Nova Scotia, his Tory council was dispersed 
or locked in patriot jails, the regular assembly stood adjourned for- 
ever, and Portsmouth was no longer the capital. In a strict sense the 
province had no government and existed only by sufferance. All the 
elements of sovereignty were at hand but uninvoked. They were of 
no more account than gold hidden in the earth. The Exeter assem- 
bly recognized this but hesitated to apply the remedy. Strangely in 
contrast with every other political upheaval, levelers and nihilists 
found no chance to ply their trades. Everything was submitted to 
the test of sound sense, and reason held the sword and the purse 
strings. 

As yet our fathers were without a government, a name, or a flag,, 
and under the bvvs of nations, had this happened on the high sea, 
Weare and Thornton and all the others would have been classed as 
pirates. Painting out the face of George the Third on tavern signs 
and painting in George Wash ngton's, or changing King street to 
Congress street were but thf humors of revolution and not funda- 
mental principles of governm nt. Fortunately for us our ancestors 
made the Revolution a business, not a pastime, and, although unskilled 
in detail and wanting good models, they instinctively recognized the 
source of all political power, and turned to the whole people. We must 
bear in mind that the Exeter government was the result of the suggest- 
tion made by the regularly convened Portsmouth assembly, and that 
its mission was to protect the province and guard it from the perils 



l8 JOHN I.ANGDON, 

of the hour. But now arose the great question of civil government 
and the relations of the people to the autonomy of the state, and the 
men at Exeter moved cautiously. 

In October, 1775, Langdon wrote to the convention and suggested 
that it petition congress for permission to erect some kind of govern- 
ment, and to New Hampshire fell the honor of having a constitution 
six months before any other state. The continental congress received 
the petition with favor, and, in the expressive words of Langdon and 
Bartlett written from Philadelphia in November, the petition gave 
occasion for stirring debate. Congress granted the request, recom- 
mending such a form of government as should be consistent with* a 
free representation of the people, — "in short, such a government as 
shall be most agreeable to the Province." " The argument on this 
matter," write the delegates (being the first of the kind), "was truly 
Ciceronial ; the eminent speakers did honor to themselves and the 
continent and the measure was carried by a large majority." This 
was the first step taken by congress to erect a government of the peo- 
ple, and its momentous character was recognized from the first, but 
the influence of Langdon and Bartlett prevailed, and the experiment of 
making the first organic constitution was confided to the people of 
New Hampshire. "We think," continues the letter, "we can say 
without any boasting that we have done our duty in this matter, by 
paying constant attention, for a long time, not only in the house, but 
in private conversation with members, to clear up any doubts they 
might have. We can't help rejoicing to see this as a groundwork 
of our government, and hope by the Blessing of Divine Providence, 
never to return to our despot ick state." 

Sons of the American Revolution and ladies and gentlemen, you 
will pardon me if I digress to tell you about that first American con- 
stitution, and to refresh your memories with the golden facts that New 
Hampshire, small as it was, struck the first blow at kingly rule in 
December, 1774, and wrote the first chapter of popular government in 
January, 1776. Our constitution was finished on the 6th of that 
month, and long before any of the others was begun. There were no 
guides for it except the old colonial charters, most of which had been 
made in the previous century ; therefore, judged by the standard of to- 
day, we find it a very crude instrument. 

New Hampshire was still called a colony, and, to show the uncertainty 
of the times, our constitution was to continue only "during the present 
unhappy and unnatural contest with Great Britain." A house of repre- 
sentatives was created, and a body of twelve men chosen from the five 



JOHN LANGDON. 19 

counties was to be a distinct branch known as the council. Both 
branches must agree to every act before it should become a law. 
Neither branch could adjourn longer than from Saturday until iVIonday 
without the consent of the other. Money bills must originate in the 
lower house, while both were to appoint all the public officers. There 
was no provision for a governor ; perhaps the recent experiences par- 
alyzed all thoughts of a headship, but the idea of a double body, and 
■especially the election of the upper one by counties and not by all the 
voters, was certainly a development in government, and in it we see 
the germ of representation of states as exemplified in the United 
States senate. The origin of money bills in the lower house, although 
a feature of the British parliament, had never before been introduced 
in America. There were other parts in our constitution, but I have 
mentioned the most important, and they emphasize the leadership of 
New Hampshire in helping to solve the perplexities of self-govern- 
ment. 

Scarcely had the constitution been put in operation when protests 
began pouring in upon the representatives. How perilous the situa- 
tion seemed to many may be understood by the remonstrances signed 
by such men as Pierce Long, Samuel Sherburne, Hercules Mooney, 
and others equally distinguished. Among the reasons alleged were 
these: "that the vote of the Continental Congress Countenancing 
the Constitution was obtained by the Unweried Importunity {both 
■within doors and without) of our Delegates there ; that Virginia and 
New York which are in similar circumstances and larger and more 
opulent and presumably much wiser, have not attempted anything of 
the kind nor even desired it ; that such action on our part appears 
assuming for so small and inconsiderable a colony to take the lead in 
a matter of so great importance and finally Because it appears to much 
like setting up an independency of the Mother Country." Such were 
the sentiments subsisting among some of our people at the breaking 
out of the Revolution. How such a protest emphasizes the resolu- 
tion of men like Langdon and his associates, who dared to plunge 
into the deeps of revolution while others stood shivering on the bank ! 
Yet we must not confuse those Americans who, in 1775 and the early 
part of 1776, maintained their allegiance to Great Britain and sin- 
cerely labored to bring about an understanding ; we must not, I say, 
touch their memories with aught but praise. They were not Tories, 
but they loved the mother country, and prayed that the blind passions 
of the hour might be dissipated, and that peace might follow colli- 
sion. We have only to invoke the history of our own time to find a 



20 JOHN IvANGDON. 

similar instance. In i860 and 1861 we know how strong the spirit 
of compromise was, and how gladly some of the elect of patriotic New 
England would have given up principle for peace. 

Patriotism must not be wholly awarded to him who sees the clear- 
est or prophesies the nearest. There are others who bear heavy 
burdens in silence, and pray that the Divine decree may be worked 
out on the lines of peace on earth and good will to men. And so these 
honest differences were prevalent at the opening of the Revolution, as 
they were at the outbreak of the Rebellion ; common sentiment was 
astray and needed focusing. And the focusing came in the Declara- 
tion of Independence, even as it came eighty-seven years later in the 
Proclamation of Emancipation. In accordance with the custom, 
delegates to the continental congress were chosen for only one year, 
and as one delegate could represent the colony in the absence of his 
colleague, we find Langdon in New Hampshire early in 1776, and 
here he remained constantly engaged in public service until he jour- 
neyed again to Philadelphia to take his seat in the memorable con- 
vention of 1787. On the 23d of January the Exeter assembly chose 
as delegates to congress Josiah Bartlett, John Langdon, and William 
Whipple, but Langdon, skilled in executive affairs and having n& 
taste for debate, preferred to remain behind, and in due time Matthew 
Thornton took his place and achieved thereby the distinction of be- 
coming one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Lang- 
don had seen enough to convince him of the supreme importance of 
doing something, consequently he set about buying powder and 
cannon, and creating a navy. "I think I may with safety," said he 
in a letter to the committee at Exeter, " serve the colony in this mat- 
ter and not the least interfere with the Continental business." 

In acknowledging his election as a delegate he thus explains his 
position: "Nothing can give greater satisfaction than to have the 
approbation of your Honorable House of having done my duty as far 
as my poor abilities would admit of. I think myself under every tie 
of Honour and Gratitude to strain every nerve in my Country's cause 
at this important day, more especially when I receive such repeated 
honour from my Country. When I shall have finished the business 
in which I have the honour to be immediately employed by the Con- 
tinent, or have it in such forwardness to leave, I shall attend in my 
place at the General Congress where it will be my greatest pride to 
serve in any way that may be in my power, this Colony in particular 
and the Continent in general. I lament that my abilities are not 
greater. All I can say is, I shall employ such as I have (to the 



JOHN LANGDON. 21 

utmost) in the service of my Country." Acting as continental agent 
for building ships and gathering war material, Langdon now entered 
upon the busiest period of his life, and connected his name and that 
of New Hampshire with the birth of the American navy. The naval 
committee of congress consisted of Silas Deane, Christopher Gads- 
den, John Langdon, Stephen Hopkins, Joseph Hewes, and Richard 
Henry Lee, and of these Langdon was second to none. 

Keels were laid and ship building progressed rapidly, so that on 
the 14th of June, 1777, Captain John Paul Jones received from Lang- 
don the i8-gun ship Ranger, built of stout New Hampshire oak, and 
then and there in Portsmouth harbor Jones unfurled to the approving 
heavens the first United States flag ever hoisted in our navy. Well 
might John Langdon feel elated at the work he had done, and well 
may we, the descendants of those days, keep close to our hearts the 
memory of that event. In December, 1776, Langdon was chosen 
speaker of the Exeter house of representatives, but he so divided his 
time as not to neglect his more urgent duties as naval agent. The fol- 
lowing year, 1777, he was again speaker, and it was during that term 
of service that he performed that act of patriotism which placed him 
in the fore rank of great Americans. That was the gloomiest year 
of the war, and upon its results depended the weal of the infant 
nation. 

The nation was scarcely a twelvemonth old, and it seemed as if 
its brief course was spent and that all was lost. Suddenly from the 
north came the fearful tidings of Burgoyne's triumphant advance 
■down Champlain. The war up to that time had scarcely vexed the 
inhabitants of that section, but now the Green Mountains and the 
Berkshire Hills lay straight in the path of the invader. The cry for 
help woke the silence of Exeter and the house quickly re-assembled. 
Men and munitions were voted, the state troops organized, measures 
for raising money passed, but such a vote seemed like brutal mock- 
ery, for the public coffers were empty and the resources had been 
drained and drained. 

The house is in committee of the whole with Meshech Weare in the 
chair, and a profound stillness settles over the room. The members 
scarce dare to look one another in the face. They count the flying 
minutes and wonder what the morrow may bring. Who is to pay the 
cost of such preparation? Then the well known voice of John Lang- 
don spoke out clear and strong. " I have a thousand dollars in hard 
money. I will pledge my plate for three thousand more. I have 
seventy hogsheads of Tobago rum, which will be sold for the most 



22 JOHN I.ANGDON. 

they will bring. They are at the service of the state. If we succeed 
in defending our firesides and our homes, I may be remunerated; if 
we do not, then the property will be of no value to me. Our friend 
Stark who so nobly maintained the honor of our state at Bunker 
Hill may safely be entrusted with the enterprise and we will check the 
progress of Burgoyne." The words were spoken, and beneath their 
spell fear and despair vanished utterly. The stricken state gained 
confidence and courage. The mighty load was lightened, and from 
every patriot home went forth praise and thanksgiving for John 
Langdon. 

What a spectacle and what an occasion! A house and council 
representing the government of one of the poorest and smallest states 
in the new Union, and a rebel state at that, its soldiers away from 
their native soil campaigning in distant fields, its frontiers threatened 
by an army of veterans confidently led, and that army supported 
by a nation the richest in all Christendom — poor New Hampshire, 
wounded and weak, stood facing the supreme moment of her fate. 

But Langdon's words revived the timid and made of every mem- 
ber a battalion leader. Here was a man rich in lands and merchan- 
dise, one who knew the value of money, probably the richest man 
among our Revolutionary ancestors, but, with a faith in the cause 
more precious than gold, he gave willingly all he possessed, and 
proved to his associates and to those who came after them that his 
purse held nothing save the sacrifice he would gladly lay on the 
altar of his imperiled country. If death had now overtaken Langdon 
his name would still remain in the most cherished annals of our 
state, for his speech that day caused armed men to spring from every 
hearthstone, gathering force as they neared the invader, until at 
length, on that August afternoon a month later. Stark at Bennington 
began the destruction of Burgoyne and his martial hosts. We all 
know by heart the tremendous consequences of Saratoga, which 
opened the treasury of France to us and won that alliance which 
could only be predicated on a victory. The victory was gained, 
and who dares deny that one of its strongest contributing causes 
was John Langdon's speech in the Exeter assembly? But Langdon 
was more than a man of affairs, he was a soldier as well, and followed 
his famous speech by organizing a battalion, which, under his com- 
mand, took part in the battles of Stillwater and Saratoga, and later 
we find him bearing arms under Sullivan in Rhode Island. 

From 1776 to the last year of the Revolutionary war, not a year 
went by without conferring some high office on Mr. Langdon. 



JOHN IvANGDON. 2$ 

He was delegate to Philadelphia, speaker of the house, a member of 
several constitutional conventions, an officer in active service, naval 
agent for the continental congress, and a justice of the superior court. 
But more distinguished public honors awaited him in the future, for in 
1783 he had not been president of New Hampshire, nor one of the 
framers of the national constitution, nor one of the great advocates of 
its adoption ; he had not been our first United States senator, nor the 
first president pro tempore of the senate ; he had not been governor 
of his native state, nor had he declined the secretaryship of the navy 
offered by his friend Jefferson, nor had he refused the office of vice- 
president of the republic urged upon him by his friend Madison. 
Well may I paraphrase the words of Rufus Choate when eulogizing 
that other illustrious son of New. Hampshire, by exclaiming, "What 
a reputation that must be — what a patriotism that must be — what a 
long and brilliant series of public services that must be, when you 
cannot mention a measure of utility nor a public office fittingly be- 
stowed but every eye spontaneously turns to, and every voice sponta- 
neously utters, that respected name of John Langdon." 

Bitter and despairing as the long years of war had been, there was 
ever present the stimulating cause of a common and unfaltering hos- 
tility to England, but now came the dark and perilous times when, 
out of jealousies and suspicions, the men who had fought the battles 
were now face to face with the problems of civil government. Corn- 
wallis's cannon had saluted the king for the last time, the colonies 
had burst into sovereign states, the people were free, patriotism had 
gained its crown. But the great leader, the organizer of war and the 
protector of peace, undeceived by the figments of the popular picture, 
addressed to the s'everal states a circular letter containing sentiments 
so truthful and so wholesome, and yet so hard to realize, that it took 
the American people a hundred years to embody them in the nation's 
conscience. Four things, he said, were indispensable to the existence 
of the United States as an independent power ; first, there must be an 
indissoluble union of all the states under a single federal government, 
which must possess the power to enforce its own laws ; second, the 
continental debts incurred in making war and securing independence 
must be paid; third, the militia system must be supported and made 
uniform in all the states ; and fourth (and in this lurk even' now the 
germs of possible disease) , the people must yield local interests to the 
common weal, fling away corroding prejudices, and treat one another 
as fellow-citizens of a true republic where every man has his rights and 
his interests, and where the truest reciprocity is the welfare of all. So 
spoke Washington. 



24 JOHN LANGDON. 

But, alas, these golden words soon lost their lustre amid the tur- 
moil of the hour, for from 1783 to 1788 we had neither principle 
nor policy. Congress was chased by a mob, the sight of a veteran 
of Saratoga or Cowpens turned the crowd to wrath, courts were dis- 
solved and judges stoned, crime and spoliation joined hands and 
danced with drunken glee, men shook off morals as old garments, 
counterfeiting was to encourage the fine arts, clipping the coin made 
a man envied and advanced him socially, while smuggling and slave 
trading were the foundations of riches and influence. Debt and im- 
prisonment for debt pointed the way to irredeemable paper money, 
and with it came anarchy. New Hampshire suffered and sinned like 
the others, and was sorely scourged besides by the Vermont contro- 
versy. That, indeed, was the time that tried men's souls, and it 
seemed as if the splendid achievements of the war were to be lost, 
and that the Declaration of Independence was to become a meaning- 
less piece of parchment. The valor of the people had been the admi- 
ration of all Europe, but where now was the wisdom to make that 
people a nation? As we look back at that period, it certainly does 
seem strange that, after winning their independence, the very same 
leaders were unable to maintain it. There were Adams, Franklin, 
Jefferson, Henry, Hamilton, Jay, Langdon, and all the others, and, 
noblest of them all, George Washington. Never for a moment had 
the welfare and the policy of the country been absent from his 
thoughts, and again it was his leadership that pointed the way. The 
very weakness of the confederation made the necessity of a constitu- 
tion all the stronger. The people saw all this, for anything would be 
better than that weak and despised congress calling itself the govern- 
ment of the United States. 

The convention at Philadelphia met in May, 1787, but our dele- 
gates were not chosen until the middle of Tune, and July had nearly 
passed away before Langdon and young Nicholas Oilman reached the 
place of meeting. Why there was such delay is not wholly clear, but 
I am inclined to assign the cause to party reasons, for party lines were 
now drawn in New Hampshire, though party as yet was merely per- 
sonal predilection. Only the year before, Langdon had been a candi- 
date for the presidency of New Hampshire, but there was no election 
by the people and the choice was left to the legislature, which elected 
him. At the election in 1787 John Sullivan was the successful candi- 
date, receiving 4,309 votes to Langdon's 3,600, and a clear majority 
of the total vote cast. 

I merely mention these elections to impress upon your minds some 



JOHN LANGDON. 25 

idea of the early cultivation of the franchise, and to show that politics 
is as indigenous to our state as the rigorous winter or the spring 
freshet. When Langdon and his youthful colleague reached Philadel- 
phia the convention was half through with its deliberations, and 
some of the more important features of the constitution had been 
already agreed upon ; but there yet remained questions of far-reaching 
influence which had not been touched, and upon these Langdon 
spoke with the authority of large experience, and his words had effect. 
This little side view of Langdon by Rufus Griswold, one of his dele- 
gate friends, has some interest to us. "He is eminently practical," 
says Griswold, " with sterling good sense,' is social in his habits, and 
in his manners easy, unaffected, and pleasing. Among all the mem- 
bers of the constitutional convention there is not one more thoroughly 
republican in his feelings and tendencies than John Langdon." He was 
now forty-six years old, a man of middle age we might say, and yet he 
saw around him many far younger, and a few much older. Let us 
stand for a moment behind the president's chair, that chair upon 
whose back was painted the famous sun which gave the text for Frank- 
lin's prophecy, and look into the faces of that remarkable assemblage. 
There are in all fifty-five members, all noted for personal and public 
reasons. Twenty-nine of them were college men, while twenty-six, in- 
cluding Langdon, Washington, and Franklin, were not. But the pres- 
ence of all these distinguished men quickly suggests the absence of 
others who had so much to do in recent history, and you wonder what 
keeps such leaders away. John Adams and Jefferson were in Europe ; 
General Nathaniel Greene, whose services in peace were as promising 
as his services in war were conspicuous, was dead ; but Sam Adams 
and Patrick Henry, above all others the most thought about, were pur- 
posely absent, as they disapproved of the convention and afterwards 
did their utmost to make it inoperative. John Jay was kept at home 
because of local spite and jealousy. But, with these illustrious names 
accounted for, behold and forever remember those who, having faith 
in the future, responded to the call ! The two most famous delegates 
were Washington and Franklin, the one fifty-five years old, the other 
eighty-one — the oldest member, as Nicholas Gilman of our state, at 
twenty-five, was the youngest. The next two members, whose intel- 
lectual powers are the splendid legacies of the ages, were Alexander 
Hamilton and James Madison, the one thirty and the other six and 
thirty years old, but even then, as afterward, they were the great in- 
tellects of the republic. Connecticut honored herself by sending Roger 
Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth, one of them a signer of the Declara- 



26 JOHN LANGDON. 

tion. Massachusetts presents Elbridge Gerry, Rufus King, and Caleb 
Strong. Pennsylvania has Franklin, Ingersoll, and the two Morrises, 
Robert and Gouverneur, and James Wilson, celebrated for his attain- 
ments in jurisprudence. Then there are McHenry and David Carroll 
and Luther Martin and others from Maryland ; and from Virginia are 
Washington, Madison, Randolph, Mason, Wythe, and Blair. From 
the Carolinas came Alexander Martin, William Blount, the two Pinck- 
neys, John Rutledge, Pierce Butler, Richard Spaight. It is a 
remarkable list of names representing in peculiar fulness the politi- 
cal, the military, and the business ability of the different states. For 
four months the locked doors of Carpenter's hall hid the convention 
from public view. The deliberations were kept secret, and therein 
lay the reason of the convention's success. At last the great instru- 
ment received its finishing touches. Compromise had played its all- 
essential part, the doors were thrown open, and the constitution was 
in the hands of the people. Then followed a time of doubt and 
apprehension. Suspicion and malice stalked through the land, 
honesty and rascality strove for place, while over all hung the dark 
clouds of envy and rankling jealousies. We were our own worst ene- 
mies. It was the house divided against itself as never before, and nar- 
row indeed was the escape of the constitution from utter destruction. 
We of these times have no conception of the bitterness that existed 
one hundred and ten years ago, nor have we anything to suggest the 
fierce hatred and consuming rancor of those days. When Langdon, 
on his journey eastward, neared the familiar sights of Portsmouth, his 
mind must have been sadly unsettled, for the news of the convention 
had preceded him and it required all his tact and buoyancy of nature 
to withstand the frowns and coolness of his fellow-citizens. Very 
serious was the situation, yet men like Sam Adams condemned the 
patiently constructed edifice, and would have applied the ax simply 
because a cellar window was out of line or the front door needed a 
porch. We were narrow in those days, prone to split hairs, sus- 
picious of strangers, envious of progress, skilled in good opinion of 
ourselves, cautious and taciturn, and given to self-examination. The 
people saw only certain articles and sections of the new plan of gov- 
ernment. They did not or would not see the equipoise of the instru- 
ment, while the fact that the creation sprang from the loins of com- 
promise tainted its legitimacy from the first. But the leaders through- 
out the country took the concrete view, for their experience of the 
past twelve years taught them many a lesson in the useful practice 
of meeting one's opponents half way ; so, with few exceptions, we find 



JOHN LANGDON. 27 

the prominent men of every state arrayed on the side of the friends of 
the constitution. The condition that was to give vitality to the in- 
strument was its adoption by nine states; and by February, 1788, 
when the New Hampshire convention met, eight states had voted in 
the affirmative, and in one only had the opponents shown great re- 
sistance, and that was Massachusetts, where a change of ten votes 
would have defeated the project. Now came our state. The conven- 
tion met at Exeter in February, and after ten days' discussion ad- 
journed to reassemble at Concord in June. During the interval Lang- 
don worked day and night for the cause, and he had stout and able 
friends to assist him, so when June came success crowned his toil, 
and his name, the first called, led the majority which declared for the 
new constitution, and at the same time conferred a great honor on New 
Hampshire by making her the ninth and necessary state to rouse the 
constitution into life. 

Whoever loves to contemplate a symmetrical and well-sustained 
political development will surely find much pleasure in studying the 
career of the statesman whose life we are now unfolding. Here was 
a man of no brilliant parts but of considerable good sense, early 
attaching himself to the common cause, prompt to deliver that Decem- 
ber blow at royal authority, sent to the opening congress and coming 
home to infuse life into conduct of the war, holding offices, not seek- 
ing them, susceptible to self-sacrifice, a framer of our constitutions — 
both state and national — calm, conciliatory, and wise, it seems but 
appropriate, after all he had been and all he had done, that New 
Hampshire should elect him as her first senator under the permanent 
government he had helped to create. 

In March, 1788, the popular vote had called Langdon to the pres- 
idency of the state ; he was inaugurated in June and resigned in 
January, 1789, to accept the senatorship to which he had been chosen 
in November of the previous year. The story of how the remodeled 
government went into operation, and the slights and difficulties it 
encountered, are too well known for to-day's repetition — how the 
members straggled into New York city in parties of four or five, in 
pairs, and singly ; and how March passed and May had nearly come 
-when Langdon, who was president pro te7npore of the senate and con- 
sequently officiating as the first president of the Republic, had the 
satisfaction to welcome Washington to his new honors. Up to this 
time there were really no marked party lines, but it was now no 
longer so, for different views soon formed political parties, the one 
dominated by Hamilton, the other by Jefferson. Langdon's course, 



28 JOHN LANGDON. 

like that of many of his associates, does not present a clear view of 
affiliation with either camp, although his past conduct inclined him to 
a strong government such as Hamilton illustrated ; but Jefferson 
gained an influence over him, and before his term expired Langdon 
was securely attached to the policy of the secretary of state. It is 
unprofitable to assign reasons for Langdon's choice, and our mission 
is not to seek motives or to be critical. We must be contented with 
the man just as he was ; to take into account his ambitions, his 
friendships, and his surroundings, and the results he achieved ; and in 
the end rest assured that public men of one hundred years ago were 
much as public men are to-day, quite as human, notwithstanding they 
powdered their hair and wore short clothes. 

On the questions of the period Langdon spoke with knowledge and 
weight. The tariff called him out, so did taxation. The tonnage 
bill gave him opportunity to show how well he understood eco- 
nomic subjects and their proper application. In short, he was one of 
the sound, hard-headed members, whose experience in commercial 
affairs made him an authority and a safe guide. He espoused the 
bank bill and subscribed for its shares. He was on the leading com- 
mittees, and the journals of the senate testify to his faithful attendance 
and unremitting labors. But his senatorial career was not wholly free 
from thorns, as the Neutrality Act and the Jay Treaty proved, for on 
both these occasions we find Langdon opposed to Washington ; and 
to a man of Langdon's composing disposition and social leanings 
a break with the president and his Federal supporters must have given 
pain, but, as in many a man of serene deportment, the glove concealed 
the iron hand. Langdon was peculiarly fitted for society, and polit- 
ical differences must have created barriers between him and the digni- 
fied gentlemen composing the Federal party. However, Langdon 
cast his vote against the famous treaty and was promptly hanged in 
effigy in more than one New Hampshire town. Portsmouth endeav- 
ored to sustain her distinguished citizen, and the mob broke windows 
and frightened the timid, while the legislature censured him by pass- 
ing emphatic resolutions. of confidence in President Washington and 
his much-abused minister, Mr. Jay. Popularity was dear to Langdon 
"as the breath of his nostrils," says one biographer, and the scenes 
and sentiments at home were not calculated to make his honors worth 
the burdens, but he had taken the plunge and crossed to the other 
side, and from this time to the day of his death his political teacher 
was Thomas Jefferson and his political associates were congressmen 
hailing from beyond the Susquehanna. The Alien and Seditioa 



JOHN LANGDON. 29 

Laws found in our senator a strenuous opponent, and no opportunity 
was missed to denounce them. Parties had now become political 
facts, and Langdon ranged himself on the side of Democracy as 
expounded by the statesman of Monticello. He served two terms in 
the senate, and he was counted among the best men of that body. 
He created no discord. He aroused no jealousy, no envy. All was 
serene and kindly. He had reached his sixtieth year, and, ripe with 
honors and rich with friendships, he passed from the senate and 
started on the journey home. 

Jefferson was now the chief magistrate of the country, and, casting 
about for men after his own heart, thought of Langdon, and forthwith 
oifered to him the secretaryship of the navy, but for some cause 
Langdon declined it, though its attractions must have been strongly 
attractive. New Hampshire henceforth was to be the theater of 
Langdon's career, not, however, in the character of a private gentle- 
man but in the almost continuous role of public servant ; for, in spite 
of a prolonged absence from the state, the name of no son was so 
potent for enthusiasm as his, and, resist as he would, his name once 
mentioned echoed from the sea to the mountains and along the gleam- 
ing highway of the Connecticut until the echo, growing stronger each 
year, summoned him at last to accept the highest honors of his state. 

" We are all Republicans ; we are all Federalists ! " exclaimed Jef- 
ferson in his inaugural address, but no sooner had he reached the 
White House than the partisan knife was whipped from its sheath and 
vigorously applied to office-holding Federalists. Langdon received 
a letter from the president expressing the hope that New Hampshire 
would come into the fold of Republicanism, and the ex-senator was 
incited to further and greater exertion in behalf of party. He went 
to the state legislature, where, despite a large Federal majority, he 
came within four votes of being chosen speaker, so strong was his 
popularity. He tried again, and in 1804 he won the office and 
turned it to party ends. The great struggle which was to determine 
New Hampshire's political position for the next half century now took 
place. John Taylor Oilman had been governor for a decade, the 
Federalists were strong and confident, while the Republicans seemed 
hopelessly in the minority. But the situation was changed, for, with 
four thousand majority at his back, Langdon, after three trials, 
became governor in 1805, and Jefferson saw with delight the rout of 
his rivals in the very stronghold of Federalism. Practical politics, 
never a languishing crop among our people, now burst into riotous 
fruitage, overrunning the state, distributing its seeds in the remotest 



30 JOHN I.ANGDON. 

corners, and making a party camp of every school district. By this 
time you must have learned that John Langdon vi^as possessed of 
many kinds of sagacity, and in none did he show to greater advantage 
than in vote getting. Therein was his power, and its intelligent 
exercise created a political atmosphere in our state which remains to 
this very day. Year after year furious campaigns were fought, the 
governor being the leader. Victories followed every contest save one 
until June, 1812, when, feeble with age and full of honors, he 
renounced all further office and sought dignified repose. Once again 
his name and worth prompted the congressional caucus of thai year 
to nominate him as vice-president on the ticket with Madison, but the 
old man, contented with the activities of life, declined the certain 
honor. Elbridge Gerry took his place and was duly elected. 

Madison knew John Langdon intimately, and thus spoke of him : 
"He was a true patriot and a good man, with a noble way of think- 
ing and a frankness and warmth of heart that made his friends love 
him much, as- it did me in a high degree, and disarmed his enemies 
of some of the asperities indulged toward others." He certainly was 
a man of fascinating manners and handsome mein. In public life we 
have seen him occupying positions of honor and trust in state and 
nation. In private life we know he was unspotted ; yet a man of the 
world, rich, generous, and sympathetic, indulging in splendid hos- 
pitality, polished and amiable, a man of affairs as well, versed in the 
phrase of commerce, owning many argosies. He loved his country. 
He trusted his fellow-men. He believed in God. The last days of 
his life were passed in the good old Portsmouth of his boyhood ; 
a father among his children, honored, revered, remembered in the 
prayers of many a household, he watched with dim and thankful 
vision the descending of the sun. On the i8th of September, 1819, 
in the seventy-ninth year of his age, he passed away, and three days 
later, amidst the trappings of woe and the half-masted flags on land 
an4 sea, his body was given to earth amid the solemn boom of the 
minute guns and the yet more solemn hush of public and private 
grief. 

A few years after and not one was left of all the Revolutionary 
fathers and soldiers. All had gone from the sight of mortal men and 
naught save their memories and their examples remained to enrich 
the republic. In becoming commemoration commonwealth and 
communities, mindful of the debt they owed, have created memorials 
of marble and bronze that coming generations may pause and learn 
the lesson taught by the men of long ago. In this grateful duty New 



JOHN IvANGDON. 3I 

Hampshire has perpetuated in sculptured form and monument the 
names of some of her sons, but a niche remains unfilled, a noticeable 
omission and deep reproach that the splendid services and civic 
honors of John Langdon await to this late day a memorial to com- 
memorate his patriotic worth. As my parting words, I beg you to 
think of this neglect and ponder well its remedy, ever remembering 
that a people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of 
remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remem- 
bered with pride by remote descendants. 























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